Bergen, Norway

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Bergen, Norway September 3

We woke in Bergen to another rainy, cloudy day. Since our tour did not begin until 1:15pm, after breakfast we walked from the port into town. The Bryggen area, a very old part of the Hanseatic League with all the merchants' homes and stores is situated right on the port. The old buildings tilt both forward and sideways and are painted a variety of colors. After you pass Bryggen on one side of the port, you come to the fish market at the top end. There are a large number of open air stalls selling fruits/vegetables, various kinds of sausages (elk and reindeer) and smoked meats, and every kind of fish available in that area. We tried a sample of the smoked whale, which was actually quite tasty and not at all fatty. There was also a large covered fish market. You could sit and eat at most of the vendors', so if we had been hungry we could have tried something different. We walked around the narrow streets around the port for a few hours and then headed back to the ship to change into dry shoes for the afternoon excursion – an exercise in futility as it happened.

The tour took us through many other areas of Bergen, beyond the port. Bergen is the second largest city in Norway, with 265,000 residents. They get 300+ days of rain a year and about 30 days of sun. They restrict the sale of alcohol due to a high level of alcoholism and a high rate of divorce, 60+% last year. Surprise, surprise!

Then we drove to Troldhaugen to the Museum and home of Edvard Grieg who wrote Peer Gynt and other famous Norwegian classical music. The house was quite small, but then so were Grieg and his wife. We walked to their gravesite on the lakefront, a cliff into which a niche was carved for their ashes. After Troldhaugen, the plan was to take the funicular up to the top of Mount Troyen for a panoramic view of the city. We did go, but the rain and mist cancelled out the view completely.

We were quite late getting back to the ship, right at the final "all aboard", but were not concerned because we had two crew members with us and were on a sanctioned tour. As we got aboard, we could hear the captain making an announcement that there was a major storm in the North Sea, so we were going to make a significant change in our itinerary. We would not be going to the Shetland Islands and Inverness, Scotland and would instead be running south ahead of the winds and swells and heading around the southern part of England and back up through the Irish Sea to Belfast, the long way. This would mean an additional 2 days at sea, for a total of 3. He warned of bad seas for the night and we got to the cabin to find it prepared for rough water, with everything in the bar area secured in the sink, etc. By dinner, we still had not hit any rough water, so we went to Toscana and had the pasta of the day at Janice's suggestion. Daryl had the fish of the day to follow and Rob the Oso Bucco. All we felt all night was some slight pitch and roll and we slept soundly.